Container lifting means and method



Dec. 26, 1967 J. J. MARTIN CONTAINER LIFTING MEANS AND METHOD Filed Jan.10. 1966 Y 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR JOHN J. MART/N ATTY Dec. 26, 1967J. J. MARTIN I CONTAINER LIFTING MEANS AND METHOD Filed Jan. 10. 1966 5Sheets-Sheet 2 v INVENTOR JOHN J. MARTIN ATT'Y.

Dec. 26, 1967 J. J. MARTIN 3,360,141

CONTAINER LIFTING MEANS AND METHOD Filed Jan. 10, 1966 s sheets-sheet 5INVENTOR JOHNJMART/N ATT'Y United States Patent 3,360,141 CONTAINERLIFTING MEANS AND METHOD John J. Martin, Weatherly, Pa., assignor toPullman Incorporated, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware FiledJan. 10, 1966, Ser. No. 519,590 14 Claims. (Cl. 214-38) This inventionrelates to material handling means and in particular relates to acontainer lift and storage structure and system and method therefor.

Containerization is becoming increasingly important and along with itthe means for handling and transfer-ring goods or lading between thevarious types of transportation such as over the road, railroad, airway,and marine transportation. Containers of standardized dimensions,generally 8 feet by 8 feet by 20 feet, for carrying the lading must bestored sometimes en route between these various modes of transportation.Various types of equipment have beene proposed for accomplishing thisbut have suffered from the disadvantages of not being compact, or beingintegrated with the containers themselves, or not being adaptable todifferent size containers.

It is an advantage of the present invention to provide material handlingmeans or container storage device which permits ready removal of thecontainer from a vehicle such as a truck-trailer and to store thecontainer in a suitable location awaiting transfer to another mode oftransportation.

It is a general object of the present invention to provide a containerlift and storage arrangement which allows removal of the container froma vehicle and storage of the container thereon.

It is another object of the invention to provide a container lift andstorage arrangement that is provided with stable supports and anactuating mechanism to separate the supports for separating thecontainer from .a vehicle and support the container in a suitablestorage area. Such an arrangement need only have .a set of supports foreach container and one operating mechanism and can be used for varioussize containers.

Another object of the subject invention is to provide for a novel systemand method of transferring the container from a vehicle such as atruck-trailer to a storage area through the implementation of thecontainer lift and storage assembly.

These and other objects and advantages will become more apparent fromreference to the following description, claims and appended drawings,wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the novel invention;

FIGS. 2 through 7 are illustrative of the various procedural stepsemploying the novel invention for storing of the material handlingmeans.

With reference now to the drawings :and in particular to FIG. 1, thereis shown the novel material handling means which employs a containerlift and storage arrangement or assembly 1 supporting a container 2(shown in phantom line). The container lift and storage assemblycomprises a plurality of four container supports or stands 3, 4, 5 and 6disposed at the corners of the container 2. The stands 3 and 4 form thefront support for the container 2. Each stand 3 or 4 is identical to theother except that it is, in container lifting position, the mirror imageof the other and, therefore, .a description of one will describecorresponding components on the other. Therefore, like referencecharacters are used to describe each stand.

Now with reference to FIG. 1 it will be seen that the stand 3 is in theshape of a tripod having three legs 3a, 3b, and 30 that are spread apartat the base and converge into an integral non-pivotal apex portion 8, aspacer 9 being provided at the apex portion for separating legs 3a and3b in fixed base relation, and a horizontal H-beam 10 being attached tolegs 3b and 30 to form an A-frame structure.

3,360,141 Patented Dec. 26, 1967 The lower extremities of each of thelegs 3 and 4 are pivota-lly supported on a U-shaped trunnion or foot 11by pivot means 12, each base or pedestal 11 adjusting for uneven groundand having a fiat base portion 13 and a pair of uprights 14 and 15. Theleg 30 intermediate its ends is provided with a triangulated shaped ingor stop 16 provided with an upper surface 17 for engaging the under sideof the container 2 as will be later explained. Each apex portion 8 isprovided With a retractable L-shaped pin 18 for engagement into theopening of a corner bracket 19 of the container 2. The container cornerbracket or fitting is of the standard American Standards Association(A.S.A.) corner fitting construction, which is provided with an aperture20 for receiving the pin 18, as shown in phantom in FIG. 1. The leg 3b,intermediate its ends, but closer to the base 11, is provided with astud 21 for receiving the ram and extension assembly 22 to be laterdescribed, with this pin or stud extending toward the leg 3a.

The legs or stands 5 and 6 provide a rear support structure for thecontainer 2, and to accomplish this end are integrated with one anotherby transverse crisscross tie beam structure 24 having diagonal struts 25and 26 extending to portions of a respective stand 5 or 6 to addreinforcement to the container lift and storage assembly. Each rearstand 5 or 6 is identical to the other except that one is a mirror imageof the other and therefore like reference characters are used todescribe each stand. With reference now to stand 5 or 6 it is seen thatit is provided with a pair of downwardly diverging legs 27 and 28 tiedtogether intermediate their ends at their lower parts thereof by alongitudinally extending I-beam 29 to define an A-shaped supportstructure. It will be noted that the supporting beam 29 lies in the samehorizontal plane generally as the connection of the criss-cross beam 26,both members 29 and 26 being integrated to the leg 28 approximate thelower end thereof. Each leg 27 and 28 at its lower end thereof ispivotally connected to a trunnion member or clevis pedestal 30 identicalin construction to the trunnion member or foot 11. The pedestal 30 isprovided with a base 31a and uprights 31 and 32. The member 30 is heldto the bottom of the leg 27 or 28 by pivot pin 33. The legs 27 and 28converge at their upper end or apex portion 35 from which projectsinwardly a pin 36 for insertion into the aperture 20 of the cornerbracket 19 of the container 2. A top or head portion 37 on the apexportion 35 is provided with an outwardly extending stud or pin 38 forattachment to the ram and extension structure 22, to be later explained.Below the apex 35 there is provided a gusset plate 39 tying together andreinforcing the legs 27 and 28.

Hydraulic means or ram and extension structure 22 comprises a hydraulicram or jack means 40 including a piston rod 41 and cylinder 42, the rod41 being extended in and out of the cylinder 42 in the conventionalmanner by the supply of hydraulic fluid under pressure through lines 43and 44, the cylinder being provided with trunnion or clevis means 45pivotally connecting with link or arm 46, the outer end of the arm 46being removably placed for pivotal movement upon the pin 38; while theother end 50 of the ram piston rod 41 is provided with aperture meansfor pivotally coupling to the pin 21. When the unit 22 is mounted on thepins 21 and 38 and hydraulic fluid pressure is supplied or taken fromthe hydraulic means 22, the arms 46 and 41 operate the coutainer liftand storage arrangement 1 supporting the container 2 through its cornerbracket by the following described manner.

With reference now in particular to FIGS. 2 through 7 it is seen that inFIG. 2 the container 2 is mounted on the container lift and storagestructure 1 at its corner brackets through the use of the pins 18, 18 ofthe forward stands 3 and 4 and the pins 36, 36 of: the rear stands 5 and6 by inserting these pins into the openings in the corner brackets 19.This is done while the container is mounted on the vehicle chassis 50acarried by the wheel assembly 51 and the retractable supportingconventional ground engaging gear 52, the chassis having tracks (one ofwhich is seen in FIG. 4) 54 disposed between the botton containersupport 55, the bottom portion or rail means 55 of the container beingremovably coupled to the chassis 54 in a conventional manner. In orderto perform the operation of removing the container from the chassis 50,the chassis is detached from the container by removal of detachable pinssuch as shown in co-pending US. patent application Ser. No. 452,563filed on May 3, 1965, now Patent No. 3,294,420. In the next operation,as seen in FIG. 3, the unit 22 is mounted on pins 21 and 38 of stands 4and 6 of the container lift and storage unit 1. The next operation isshown in FIG. 4 where hydraulic fluid is supplied to the ram unit 4-2and the ram unit 40 contracts with the ram arm 41 moving inwardly in thecylinder 40 causing each rear leg 28 of each rear stand 5 and 6 to swingclockwise about their pivots 33 and the rear leg 3:: of each forwardstand 3 and 4 to pivot about forward pivots 12 and 12b and swing in acounter clockwise direction, permitting the full vertical extent of eachleg 27 and each leg 3b to be in a vertical position for raising thecontainer 2 above the chassis 50. Further upward movement of thecontainer is prevented by abutment of the overtravel stop 16 on each leg30 with the bottom 55 of each container. When this occurs, the liftingstep is completed. As seen in FIG. 5 the next step is to remove thechassis, which may be accomplished by a tractor or the like. In the nextstep the container is lowered down on the stands, as shown by FIG. 6, byextending the hydraulic unit to allow the arm 41 to extend outwardly andswing the rearward legs of the forward and rearward stand units untilthey touch the ground by pivoting of the forward and rear assembliesabout the pivots 33 and 12 of the respective assemblies. In the finalstep, as shown by FIG. 7, the ram and extension structure 22 is removedand the container is supported on the stilts or stand units 3, 4, 5, and6.

In order to remove the container from these stands or stilts and placethe container chassis 50 the above procedure is reversed.

The supports or stands 3, 4, 5, and 6 are stable in themselves and theydo not depend upon the container in any way for this stability. Theactuating mechanism or ram and extension unit 22 is separate from thesesupports and when it is desired to store several containers at one time,it is necessary to have only a set of stilts or stands for eachcontainer and one operating mechanism 22. The same supports or standsand operating mechanism can be used for all length containers. The onlyprovisions required on the containers are the openings at the bottomcorner brackets which may be the same openings that are used in thestandard A.S.A. recommended bottom corner fittings.

It should be appreciated that the use of such terms as forward andrearward or fore and aft and the like should not be construed as alimitation upon the breadth of the appended claims.

The foregoing description and drawings are given merely to explain andillustrate the invention, and the invention is not to be limitedthereto, except insofar as the appended claims are so limited, sincethose skilled in the art who have the disclosure before them will beable to make modifications and variations therein without departing fromthe scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A container lift and storage assembly comprising a first pair ofseparable stands for supporting one end of a container, a second pair ofstands for supporting the other end of a container, each first standbeing in the shape of a tripod, said tripod being defined by twodivergingly longitudinally inner and outer spaced legs to define agenerally inverted V-shaped structure and a third outer leg laterallyspaced outwardly of the structure, each tripod leg having a free endportion and feet means pivotally connected to each of said leg endportion for allowing pivoting of the two legs about their feet, each ofthe legs merging into an apex portion having pin means for engaging thecorners of the container, an overtravel stop being mounted on said innerleg for engagement with the under side of the container, said secondpair of stands having lateral brace means inter-connecting one standwith the other stand to define a unified structure, each rear standbeing in the form of a generally inverted V- shaped frame and having apair of downwardly extending inner and outer inter-connected supportsthat merge upwardly to define an apex support portion, feet pivotallyconnecting the free end of the inner support, each apex support portionhaving pin means for engaging the corners of the container, means forcoupling the first and second stands together comprising an extendibleand contractable unit having free ends, said outer leg of the said firststand having a couple means approximate its lower end and said apexsupport portion having a couple means cooperative with said first namedcouple means in receiving the free ends of said extendible andcontractable unit whereby upon contraction of said extendible andcontractable unit the inner supports of the second pair of stands andsaid outer legs of said first pair of stands are allowed to pivot abouttheir respective feet attendant to increasing the vertical extentthereof for raising the container.

2. A container lift and storage assembly comprising a pair of fore andaft container supports longitudinally spaced from one another forsupporting the container at its corners, the fore support comprising apair of separate tripod structures, each tripod structure comprising aforward A-frame having a pair of downwardly diverging forward andrearward stand elements and a horizontal brace integrallyinter-connecting each stand element, a foot pivotally mounted to eachstand element at its lower end, said rearward stand element having anovertravel stop for engagement with the underside of the container, saidtripod structure comprising a laterally outwardly extending third standelement connecting with said A-frame at the top thereof to define atripod apex portion and having a pivotally attached foot, retractablecontainer engaging pin means supported in said apex portion, said aftsupport comprising a pair of laterally spaced A-frames and a horizontalbrace inter-connecting said A-frames, each A-frame having a forward anda rear leg, each leg being provided with a pivotal foot, each of saidlegs diverging upward into a common apex portion carrying a retractablepin means for engagement with the corner of the container, and means fortilting each fore and aft support about its forward pivotal feet andcomprising a hydraulic ram unit having a rearwardly extending arm and aforwardly extending arm, one of said arms being contracted and expandedrelative to the other and coupling means provided on the end of each ofsaid arms and on the apex portion of a rear leg and on the lower portionof the forward stand element of an A-frame of the fore support toprovide for pivotal movement of each A- frame and the laterallyoutwardly extending forward third stand element about their respectiveforward feet to increase the vertical extent of the forward elements andlegs of said A-frames attendant to elevating of a container, theelevating of said container being limited by the overtravel stopengaging with the bottom of the container.

3. A container lift and storage assembly for supporting the corners of acontainer and comprising a forward support structure and a rearwardsupport structure, each support structure including a generallyangulated structure having fore and aft legs and pedestal means on eachof the legs pivotally mounted to each of the legs, and extendible andcontractable means mountable between the forward and rearwardstructures, said rearward angulated structure having an upper portioncouplable to one end of the extendible and contractable means and saidfore leg of the forward support structure having a lower base portionfor coupling to said extendible and contractable means lying at a planebelow the upper portion of the rear angulated structure whereby saidextendible and contractable means when coupled between each supportstructure in contraction causes pivoting of the legs of the forward andrearward angulated structures on the pedestal means of the fore legs ofsaid angulated structures, and means on each support structure forcoupling the same to respective corners of a container.

4. A container and lift assembly comprising forward and rearwardpivotally mounted container supports, said forward support comprisingfore and aft members that diverge downwardly from one another and a footportion on each diverging member, the forward diverging member at itslower end being provided with a forward fastening means, said rearwardsupport comprising a pair of fore and aft downwardly diverging membersand a foot portion on each diverging member of the rearward support,each diverging member of the rear support converging into an apexportion provided with a rear fastening means, and each support meanshaving means for coupling same to the corner areas of the container, andextension and contraction means having one end attached to the rearfastening means and having the other end attached to the forwardfastening means, said extension and contracting means being contractableattendant to rotating the rearward members of each forward and rearwardsupport about the foot portion of the forward members attendant toincreasing the vertical extent of each of the fore members for raisingthe container.

5. The invention according to claim 4 and each support being providedwith a lateral stabilizing member connecting with the fore and aftdiverging members of the support.

6. The invention according to claim 4 and each means for couplingcomprising a retractable pm means being located at the apex portion ofeach stand for insertion into the opening of a corner area.

7. The invention according to claim 4 and each forward supportcomprising a tripod structure defined by the diverging fore and aftmembers and a laterally diverging stability member having a foot portionfor pivotal movement thereat.

8. The invention according to claim 4 and each forward and rearwardsupport comprising an A-frame as defined by the diverging members.

9. The invention according to claim 4 and said aft diverging member ofsaid forward support being provided with an overtravel element forcontacting the container in limiting vertical movement of the container.

10. A material handling apparatus for removing a container from achassis comprising forward and rearward stands having a pivotallysupported base means for each stand, each stand having a forward andrearward diverging leg and a forward pivot pin on the forward leg, therearward stand having an apex portion and rearward pivot pin generallyat its apex portion, and extendible and contractable means couplable tothe forward and rearward pivot pins for swinging the rearward legs in anarc upwardly attendant to increasing the vertical length of the forwardlegs for raising a container from its chassis.

11. The combination of four corner brackets and forward and rearwardcontainer lift and storage supports and means for pivoting said supportsfor raising said corner brackets comprising a forward stand means havinga pair of legs in the form of an inverted V, the lower part of each leghaving a pedestal means pivotally connected thereto, and the upper partof each leg converging with the other to define an apex portion, a pivotpin located in the lower part of the fore leg of the forward support anda pivot pin located in the upper apex portion of the rearward support,and said means for pivoting including arm means which may be increasedin length or foreshortened, said arms being coupled to the respectivepivot pins for swinging the rearward legs upwardly in order to increasethe vertical length of the forward legs.

12. A container lift and storage assembly comprising a container havingfour corner brackets provided with apertures and a forward stand meansand a rearward stand means, each stand means defined by a pair ofdownwardly diverging fore and aft legs, a foot for each leg and each legbeing pivotally mounted on a respective foot and converging upwardlywith the other to define an apex portion, pin means for each apexportion, pivot pin means on the apex portion of the rearward stand meansand the lower portion of the fore leg of the forward stand means, thepin means of the apex portions being c0operative with the corner bracketapertures for support of the container, and an extendible andcontractable element having its ends coupled to said pivot pin means forswinging the forward and rearward stand means about their respectivefoot attendant to increasing the vertical length of the fore leg forraising the container when being coupled to each of the stand means atits apex por- U011.

13. In a container handling system, the combination of a containerhaving four bottom corner brackets, a forward stand means connected tothe forward corner brackets and a rearward stand means connected to therearward corner brackets, each of said stand means being defined by apair of downwardly diverging forward and rearward legs in the formgenerally of an inverted V, a pedestal for each leg, the lower part ofeach leg being pivotally mounted on a respective pedestal and the upperportion of each leg converging to form an apex portion, the apex portionof the rearward stand means having a pivot pin and the forward leg ofsaid forward stand means having its lower end having a pivot pin, andvariable extendible means coupled to said pivot pins for pivoting theforward legs about their pedestals for increasing the vertical length ofthe forward legs of each of the stands and elevating the containers.

14. The method for lifting a container off its chassis and storing thecontainer on supports comprising the steps of (1) disconnecting thecontainer from the chassis and attaching the forward part of thecontainer at its corner brackets to a forward support of a pair ofinter-connected diverging forward and rear leg members and attaching therear of the container corner brackets to a rear support of a pair ofinter-connected diverging legs, (2) attaching an extensible andcontractable unit to the upper part of the rear support and to the lowerpart of the forward leg of the forward support, (3) contracting the unitto allow pivoting of the forward legs of the forward and rear supportsto pivot about a pedestal arrangement pivotally attached to the forwardlegs for increasing the vertical length of the forward legs of theforward and rearward supports resulting in elevating of the containerabove the previously disconnected chassis, (4) moving the chassis awayfrom the container, (5) extending the unit for swinging the legs of thesupports so that the forward and rearward supports are in their originalposition, and (6) removing the unit.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,983,394 5/1961 McKee 2l4-383,202,304 8/1965 Lannen 2l4-38 3,251,494- 5/1966 Pulliam 214-515 XROBERT G. SHERIDAN, Primary Examiner.

1. A CONTAINER LIFT AND STORAGE ASSEMBLY COMPRISING A FIRST PAIR OFSEPARABLE STRANDS FOR SUPPORTING ONE END OF A CONTAINER, A SECOND PARIOF STANDS FOR SUPPORTING THE OTHER END OF A CONTAINER, EACH FIRST STRANDBEING IN THE SHAPE OF A TRIPOD, SAID TRIPOD BEING DEFINED BY TWODIVERGINGLY LONGITUDINALLY INNER AND OUTER SPACED LEGS TO DEFINE AGENERALLY INVERTED V-SHAPED STRUCTURE AND A THIRD OUTER LEG LATERALLYSPACED OUTWARDLY OF THE STRUCTURE, EACH TRIPOD LEG HAVING A FREE ENDPORTION AND FEET MEANS PIVOTALLY CONNECTED TO EACH OF SAID LEG ENDPORTION FOR ALLOWING PIVOTING OF THE TWO LEGS ABOUT THEIR FEET, EACH OFTHE LEGS MERGING INTO AN APEX PORTION HAVING PIN MEANS FOR ENGAGING THECORNERS OF THE CONTAINER, AND OVERTRAVEL STOP BEING MOUNTED ON SAIDINNER LEG FOR ENGAGEMENT WITH THE UNDER SIDE OF THE CONTAINER, SAIDSECOND PAIR OF STANDS HAVING LATERAL BRACE MEANS INTER-CONNECTING ONESTRAND WITH THE OTHER STAND TO DEFINE A UNIFIED STRUCTURE, EACH REARSTAND BEING IN THE FORM OF A G ENERALLY INVERTED VSHAPED FRAME ANDHAVING A PAIR OF DOWNWARDLY EXTENDING INNER AND OUTER INTER-CONNECTEDSUPPORTS THAT MERGE UPWARDLY TO DEFINE AN APEX SUPPORT PORTION, FEETPIVOTALLY CONNECTING THE FREE END OF THE INNER SUPPORT, EACH APEXSUPPORT PORTION HAVING PIN MEANS FOR ENGAGING THE CORNERS OF THECONTAINER, MEANS FOR COUPLING THE FIRST AND SECOND STANDS TOGETHERCOMPRISING AN EXTENDIBLE AND CONTRACTABLE UNIT HAVING FREE ENDS, SAIDOUTER LEG OF THE SAID FIRST STAND HAVING A COUPLE MEANS APPROXIMATE ITSLOWER END AND SAID APEX SUPPORT PORTION HAVING A COUPLED MEANSCOOPERATIVE WITH SAID FIRST NAMED COUPLE MEANS IN RECEIVING THE FREEENDS OF SAID EXTENDIBLE AND CONTRACTABLE UNIT WHEREBY UPON CONTRACTIONOF SAID EXTENDIBLE AND CONTRACTABLE UNIT THE INNER SUPPORTS OF THESECOND PAIR ORF STANDS AND SAID OUTER LEGS OF SAID FIRST PAIR OF STANDSARE ALLOWED TO PIVOT BUT THEIR RESPECTIVE FEET ATTENDANT TO INCREASINGTHE VERTICAL EXTENT THEREOF FOR RAISING THE CONTAINER.